@Scytherwolf; @Soups;

Episode 7: On the Brink of Darkness

"The music machine was so cool!" Dawn smiled as the group stepped back on solid ground some time later.

She gasped as Darkrai appeared in a puff of black-purple mist. [Hello there!]

"Darkrai!" Ash growled. "What are you doing here?"

"Wait!" Ash looked to se Baron Alberto approaching the group and Darkrai. "Allow me to challenge this infernal Pokemon!"

With that, he heaved a Poke Ball skyward. "Lengua, let's go!"

[Who are you calling infernal?] Darkrai shot back as he warped away from Lengua's tongue. [I'm not the bad guy you say I am!]

He then charged a massive dark ball of energy Ash remembered as Dark Void. "Tails, watch out!" Ash called when he saw that his Buizel was in the path of the attack.

Brock gasped when he realized Tarina was in the crossfire. "Tarina! Come here! Tapa!"

Both boys braced themselves as the Dark Void went flying. The large orb rocked the town square with a massive explosion.

"I-is everyone okay?" Dawn asked as she got up from the ground.

"I think so..." Ash groaned as he collected himself.

He rubbed his eyes when he saw what looked like a Bibarel floating through the walls of a house. Did I see what I thought I saw?

Baron Alberto, confronted Darkrai in the square. "There you are! You're going to pay for sending our Pokemon to the shadow realm!"

[Shadow Realm? Really?] Darkrai sneered. [I prefer to think of it as a dream world.]

Baron Alberto was unfazed. "Lengua, use Hyper Beam!"

[I think you need to hit the hay yourself, braggart!] Darkrai grinned as he warped away from the Hyper Beam. He next charged a Dark Void large enough to hit the Lickilicky. [Nighty-night!]

As Baron Alberto hurried to assess his Lickilicky, Dawn watched Darkrai disappear. "Things are really starting to get weird..." she mused as she floated off the ground. She watched as the buildings began disappearing in pixelated lights around her.

A scream caused her to gasp-- Baron Alberto had transformed into a Lickilicky!

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[What happened?] Tarina asked as she woke up from her Dark Void induced sleep. [Why are ghost Pokemon everywhere?] she asked as a Pikachu ghost floated by her.

"Well, the last thing I remember was telling you to move away from that Dark Void." Brock explained. "If you had a few more moments, you would've escaped."

"As if that wasn't enough, Mr. Showman here turned into his own Pokemon..." Ash explained as he arrived with Alice, Tonio, and the transformed Alberto.

"I'm SUPPOSED to be human, you numbskull!" Baron Alberto shot back, much to Nurse Joy's bemusement.

Tonio opened his laptop and typed something. "It appears that a disturbance is causing the real world and a parallel world to merge. This is why things have been floating through walls, buildings disappear in pixels, and why Seńor Alberto transformed."

"You guys!" Kai called as he led Mury and Allegra inside. "Una niebla muy rara just appeared out of nowhere!" leading to the strange events.

"What is 'niebla'?" Ash asked.

"That is Spanish for fog." Brock replied as he petted Tarina.

"I asked my Honchkrow Noche to try and dispel it, but no luck." Allegra sighed.

"I'm going to see if we can still reach the outside world!" With that, Ash hurried into the fog with Tintri not far behind him.

He balked when he went through the town gate some moments later. "That's weird...we're back on the other side of the street."

Baron Alberto, meanwhile, rallied some townsfolk at the square. "Leave no stone unturned in finding Darkrai! The one that finds him and restores me to my true shape will be rewarded!"

Alice and Tonio located Ash some minutes later. "Ash...Baron Alberto is loco for thinking this is all Darkrai's fault." Alice explained. "The Darkrai I know is hardly like his self in all the fairy tales."

"There is likely something else causing all this." Tonio agreed as the group arrived. "When I was just a lad, I was taking a walk on the plains near town. As I approached a cliff overlooking a flowery field, I saw Alice falling--she had slipped. But before she met her demise on the ground, Darkrai appeared to save her. When I went to see if she was okay, Darkrai disappeared."

"So Darkrai was the one that saved my life that day, and not you?" Alice asked.

Tonio nodded. "May Arceus forgive me for lying to you."

"Oh, no, no, no, you may not have saved me, but you did assess my wounds and care for me." Alice smiled. "So your saving me was somewhat true."

Dawn thought for a moment. "Then that means Darkrai can't be responsible for this mess..."

Tonio nodded. "The distortion was a multidimensional disturbance from when Palkia entered this world."

"But what could Palkia have been running from?" Dawn mused. "That's what I'm trying to figure out..."

"Maybe, the Oración is the key to undoing all this damage?" Ash suggested. "Has it been transcribed on a disc for the music machine to play?"

"It's possible--we can head for the tower and look." Brock suggested as he welcomed Tarina aboard his shoulder.

"If that is what you wish to try, we don't have a moment to lose." Tonio cautioned. "If we're going to do this, we'd best do it now!"

To Be Continued...